An Experimental Investigation of Intra-Household Resource Allocation in Rural India

PEP working paper series 2016-20

37 Pages Posted: 7 Mar 2018 Last revised: 11 Jul 2018

See all articles by Savita Kulkarni

Savita Kulkarni

Symbiosis School of Economics - Symbiosis School of Economics

Anirudh Tagat

Department of Economics, Monk Prayogshala; Monk Prayogshala; Monash University - School of Mathematics

Hansika Kapoor

Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala

Date Written: October 19, 2016

Abstract

This study aims to investigate intra-household bargaining outcomes elicited in an artefactual field experiment design where participants completed a purchase task of real commodities. Married couples separately expressed their initial preferences over commodities. The bargaining process in the experiment was exogenously introduced by sharing information about partners’ preferences in the treatment group. We hypothesized that the spouse with weaker bargaining position at the household level would consider the information of their partner’s preferences while making own consumption decisions more compared to their partner. Therefore, they may deviate from their own preferences when purchasing commodities. More than 230 married couples from two villages in the Tamil Nadu state of India participated in the experiment. It was observed that information about partners’ spending preferences resulted in reduced final allocations for female participants. However, the deviation was not significantly different from the original intention to spend. Therefore, information about partners’ preferences may not be an effective medium to elicit bargaining power in the context of jointly-consumed household commodities. Subgroup analyses were performed to identify any heterogeneous treatment effects.

Keywords: intra-household bargaining, gender, artefactual field experiment, women’s empowerment, welfare schemes

JEL Classification: C93, D13, J12, J16, O15

Suggested Citation

Kulkarni, Savita and Tagat, Anirudh and Kapoor, Hansika, An Experimental Investigation of Intra-Household Resource Allocation in Rural India (October 19, 2016). PEP working paper series 2016-20, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2855668 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2855668

Savita Kulkarni

Symbiosis School of Economics - Symbiosis School of Economics ( email )

3rd Floor, SCHC Building, Senapati Bapat Road
Pune, Maharashtra 411004
India

Anirudh Tagat (Contact Author)

Department of Economics, Monk Prayogshala ( email )

Powai
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400072
India

HOME PAGE: http://www.monkprayogshala.in

Monk Prayogshala ( email )

Powai
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400072
India

HOME PAGE: http://www.monkprayogshala.in

Monash University - School of Mathematics ( email )

Melbourne
Australia

Hansika Kapoor

Department of Psychology, Monk Prayogshala ( email )

Powai
Mumbai, Maharashtra 400072
India

HOME PAGE: http://www.monkprayogshala.in

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